Data delivery

ABSTRACT

A system has at least two data-receiving applications running on one or more data-receiving devices. Each data-receiving application is capable of requesting and receiving data. A data-processing apparatus and a data-storage apparatus are also provided, the data-storage apparatus being connected to the data-receiving applications via the data-processing apparatus. The data-processing apparatus is arranged to receive a plurality of data-requests which form a request group from the data-receiving applications. The data-processing apparatus is arranged to evaluate the data-requests and to send a single request for the data-requests within the request group to the data-storage apparatus, and further arranged to receive data from the storage apparatus, in response to the single request. The data-processing apparatus is arranged to process and distribute the received data, or portions thereof, to at least one of the data-receiving applications.

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

[0001] This invention relates to a method and associated apparatus fordelivering data to one or more data-receiving devices, each of which maybe running one or more data-receiving applications.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

[0002] It is known to deliver data to remote data-receiving devicesusing network connections such as for example an Internet (and inparticular a World Wide Web) connection. Further, intermediaries such asWeb-Cache intermediaries are known, which cache data between a serverholding the data and a data-receiving device to which data will bedelivered. Although the primary function of the Web Cache Intermediaryis to cache data it can also prevent multiple requests for the same databeing transmitted from the data-receiving device to the server.

[0003] Prevention of the transmission of multiple requests isparticularly important in situations in which the server undergoes astate change following the receipt of the request for data from thedata-receiving device i.e. the request for data causes the data held onthe server to change. Such requests are not generally cached and includethose those requests containing form data and the like. Examples of sucha state change include the placing of an order on an online shoppingsite, etc., in which multiple orders can result if multiple requests arenot blocked.

[0004] Further, the number of types of device and/or applications beingused to make network connections is increasing. For example devices suchas PDA's, PC's, web enabled televisions, mobile telephones, and the likeare now being used to access information.

[0005] Indeed, it is known to use a plurality of devices in conjunctionwith one another to access information. That is an aggregations ofaccess data-receiving applications that may be brought together to forma distributed user interface. For example, a PDA may be used inconjunction with a PC wherein the PDA is used much like a remote controlto control the data sent to the PC, but the PC is used to display theinformation (for which it is much better suited because of its higherdisplay capabilities).

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

[0006] According to a first aspect of the invention there is provided asystem comprising at least two data-receiving applications running onone or more data-receiving devices, each data-receiving applicationbeing capable of requesting and receiving data, a data-processing meansand a data-storage means connected to said data-receiving applicationsvia said data-processing means, said data-processing means beingarranged to receive a plurality of data-requests forming a request groupfrom said data-receiving applications, to evaluate said data-requestsand to send a single request for the data-requests within said requestgroup to said data-storage means and further being arranged to receivedata from said storage means, in response to said single request,process said received data and distribute said received data, orportions thereof, to at least one of said data-receiving applications.

[0007] An advantage of such a system is that it may be used to preventsaid data-storage means from receiving a plurality of requests for data(data requests) by processing the requests made by the data-receivingapplications to provide a single request. The single request may bearranged to contain requests for data suitable for the variousdata-receiving applications.

[0008] The, or each, data-receiving application may be arranged to runon a different data-receiving device, or indeed a plurality ofdata-receiving applications may be arranged to run on the same device.For example, a data-receiving device, such as a PC, may be arranged torun an Internet browser, together with an application streaming video.The browser and the streaming application each constitute adata-receiving application, but running on the same data-receivingdevice. One way of looking at the invention may be to facilitateco-ordinating the navigation of web resources across an aggregation ofdata-receiving applications (in which a data-receiving application maybe running on separate data-receiving devices).

[0009] According to a second aspect of the invention there is provided amethod of delivering and receiving data to and from two or moredata-receiving applications running on one or more data-receivingdevices, said method comprising receiving a plurality of requests fordata, forming a request group, from said data-receiving applicationsusing a data-processing means, evaluating said requests sending a singlerequest to a data-storage means from the data-processing means andfurther comprising processing data received from said data-storage meansin response to said single request using said data-processing means, anddistributing said received data, or portions thereof, to at least one ofsaid data-receiving applications.

[0010] According to a third aspect of the invention there is provided aprocessing means, which may provide the data-processing means of thefirst aspect of the invention, which comprises a receiving means andtransmitter means, the receiver means being arranged to receive aplurality of data requests from a plurality of data-receivingapplications, said plurality of data requests forming a request group,and also to receive data from a storage means, and the transmittingmeans being arranged to transmit data to said storage means and totransmit received-data received from said storage means to saiddata-receiving applications, further, said processing means beingarranged to process requests for data received by said receiving meansfrom said data-receiving applications, evaluate said requests and toproduce a single request for the data-requests within said request groupand generated by said evaluation and to cause said transmitting means totransmit said single request to said data-storage means and further toreceive data from said data-storage means, process said received-dataand to transmit said received data, or portions thereof, to at least oneof said data-receiving applications.

[0011] According to a fourth aspect of the invention there is provided amethod of requesting data comprising receiving a plurality of datarequests from a plurality of data-receiving applications, said pluralityof data-requests forming a request group, evaluating said requests andproducing a single request for data, to a storage means, for saidrequest group generated by said evaluation, receiving received-data inresponse to said single request from said storage means, processing saidreceived-data and sending said received-data, or portions thereof, to atleast one of said data-receiving applications.

[0012] According to a fifth aspect of the invention there is provided acomputer readable medium containing instructions, which when read onto acomputer cause that computer to perform the method of the second and/orfourth aspects of the invention.

[0013] According to a sixth aspect of the invention there is provided acomputer readable medium containing instructions, which when read onto aprocessing means cause that processing means to function as thedata-processing means according to the first and/or third aspects of theinvention.

[0014] The computer readable medium of the fifth and/or sixth aspects ofthe invention may comprise any one or more of the following: a floppydisk, a CD, a DVD ROM/RAM (including +R,−R), a hard drive, a ZIP disk,any form of optical and/or magneto optical drive, a tape, a transmittedsignal (including an Internet and/or ftp download, or the like), a wire.

[0015] According to a seventh aspect of the invention there is provideda computing device which comprises a receiver and transmitter, thereceiver being arranged to receive a plurality of data requests from aplurality of data-receiving applications, said plurality of datarequests forming a request group, and also to receive data from a store,and the transmitter being arranged to transmit data to said store and totransmit received-data received from said store to said data-receivingapplications, further, said computing device being arranged to processrequests for data received by said receiver from said data-receivingapplications, identify said received data requests as belonging to thegroup, evaluate said requests and to produce a single request for thedata-requests within said request group and generated by said evaluationand to cause said transmitter to transmit said single request to saiddata-store and further to receive data from said data-store, processsaid received-data and to transmit said received data, or portionsthereof, to at least one of said data-receiving applications.

[0016] According to a eighth aspect of the invention there is provided amethod of requesting data comprising receiving a plurality of datarequests from a plurality of data-receiving applications, said pluralityof data-requests forming a request group, evaluating said requests,identifying said received data requests as belonging to the group andproducing a single request for data, to a store, for said request groupgenerated by said evaluation, receiving received-data in response tosaid single request from said store, processing said received-data andsending said received-data, or portions thereof, to at least one of saiddata-receiving applications.

[0017] According to a ninth aspect of the invention there is provided asystem comprising at least two data-receiving applications running onone or more data-receiving devices, each data-receiving applicationbeing capable of requesting and receiving data, a data-processor and adata store connected to said data-receiving applications via saiddata-processor, said data-processor being arranged to receive aplurality of data-requests forming a request group from saiddata-receiving applications, to identify said received data requests asbelonging to the group, to evaluate said data-requests and to send asingle request for the data-requests within said request group to saiddata store and further being arranged to receive data from said datastore, in response to said single request, process said received dataand distribute said received data, or portions thereof, to at least oneof said data-receiving applications.

[0018] According to a tenth aspect of the invention there is provided amethod of delivering and receiving data to and from two or moredata-receiving applications running on one or more data-receivingdevices, said method comprising receiving a plurality of requests fordata, the plurality of requests forming a request group, from saiddata-receiving applications using a data-processor, evaluating saidrequests, determining a data-request as belonging to the request group,sending a single request to a data store from the data-processor andfurther comprising processing data received from said data store inresponse to said single request using said data-processor, anddistributing said received data, or portions thereof, to at least one ofsaid data-receiving applications.

[0019] According to a eleventh aspect of the invention there is provideda computing device which comprises a receiver and transmitter, thereceiver being arranged to receive a plurality of data requests from aplurality of data-receiving applications, said plurality of datarequests forming a request group, and also to receive data from a store,and the transmitter being arranged to transmit data to said store and totransmit received-data received from said store to said data-receivingapplications, further, said processor being arranged to process requestsfor data received by said receiver from said data-receivingapplications, evaluate said requests, identify said received datarequests as belonging to the group and to produce a single request forthe data-requests within said request group and generated by saidevaluation and to cause said transmitter to transmit said single requestto said store and further to receive data from said store, process saidreceived-data and to transmit said received data, or portions thereof,to at least one of said data-receiving applications,

[0020] wherein said computing device is arranged such that saidevaluation comprises one of: postponing sending said single requestuntil all requests within a request group have been received; sendingsaid single request on receipt of the first request within a requestgroup; monitoring requests within a request group and transmitting saidsingle request when the computing device has received sufficient data tocreate said single request from data-requests made thereto; and mergingdata-requests received from said data-receiving applications such thatsaid single request comprises a consolidated request comprising at leastportions of said data-requests.

[0021] According to a twelfth aspect of the invention there is provideda processing means which comprises a receiver and transmitting means,the receiver being arranged to receive a plurality of data requests froma plurality of data-receiving applications, said plurality of datarequests forming a request group, and also to receive data from astorage means, and the transmitting means being arranged to transmitdata to said storage means and to transmit received-data received fromsaid storage means to said data-receiving applications, further, saidprocessing means being arranged to process requests for data received bysaid receiver from said data-receiving applications, identify saidreceived data request as belonging to the group, evaluate said requestsand to produce a single request for the data-requests within saidrequest group and generated by said evaluation and to cause saidtransmitting means to transmit said single request to said data-storagemeans and further to receive data from said data-storage means, processsaid received-data and to transmit said received data, or portionsthereof, to at least one of said data-receiving applications.

[0022] According to a thirteenth aspect of the invention there isprovided a system comprising at least two data-receiving applicationsrunning on one or more data-receiving means, each data-receivingapplication being capable of requesting and receiving data, adata-processing means and a data-storage means connected to saiddata-receiving applications via said data-processing means, saiddata-processing means being arranged to receive a plurality ofdata-requests forming a request group from said data-receivingapplications to evaluate said data-requests, identify said received datarequests as belonging to the group and to send a single request for thedata-requests within said request group to said data-storage means andfurther being arranged to receive data from said data-storage means, inresponse to said single request, process said received data anddistribute said received data, or portions thereof, to at least one ofsaid data-receiving applications.

[0023] According to a fourteenth aspect of the invention there isprovided a method of delivering and receiving data to and from two ormore data-receiving applications running on one or more data-receivingmeans, said method comprising receiving a plurality of requests fordata, the plurality of requests forming a request group, from saiddata-receiving applications using a data-processing means, assessingsaid requests, identifying said received data requests as belonging tothe group, sending a single request to a data-storage means from thedata-processing means and further comprising processing data receivedfrom said data-storage means in response to said single request usingsaid data-processing means, and distributing said received data, orportions thereof, to at least one of said data-receiving applications.

[0024] According to a fifteenth aspect of the invention there isprovided a network comprising; a server; a plurality of data handlingdevices, each device being capable of communication with the server; amemory;

[0025] wherein the server is arranged to: receive a plurality ofdemands, forming a demand group, for data from at least two of thedata-handling devices; identify said received data demands as belongingto the group; form a single demand for the plurality of demands; fetchdata from the memory to satisfy the single demand; and supply thefetched data to at least one of the data handling devices.

[0026] According to a sixteenth aspect of the invention there isprovided a server, the server being arranged to: receive a plurality ofdemands for data from at least two data-handling devices forming ademand group; identify said received data demand as belonging to thegroup; form a single demand for the plurality of demands; fetch datafrom a memory to satisfy the single demand; and supply the fetched datato at least one of the data handling devices.

[0027] According to a seventeenth aspect of the invention there isprovided a method comprising: forming a demand group comprising aninitial request for data from a data-receiving application and a requestfrom at least one other data-receiving application, the at least onerequest being formed in response to the initial request; receiving theplurality of requests; forming a single demand for the plurality ofrequests; fetching data from a memory to satisfy the single request; andsupplying the fetched data to at least one of the data handling devices.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0028] There now follows by way of example only a description ofembodiments of the present invention with reference to the accompanyingdrawings of which:

[0029]FIG. 1 schematically shows the architecture of a prior artcomputer capable of acting as a server for this invention;

[0030]FIG. 2 schematically shows a prior art system in which datareceiving devices communicate with a server;

[0031]FIG. 3 schematically shows a system in which data receivingdevices communicate with a server via a proxy server;

[0032]FIG. 4 schematically shows an overview of one method of combiningdata requests at a data-processing means;

[0033]FIG. 5 schematically shows an overview of a further method ofcombining data requests at a data-processing means; and

[0034]FIG. 6 schematically shows a method of de-multiplexing data sentto a data-processing means.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0035] Data is held on a storage-means or server 100, as shown in FIG.2, and can be requested by any number of data-receiving devices that arecapable of communicating with the server 100. Indeed, a firstdata-receiving device can make a request for data to be sent to a seconddata-receiving device.

[0036] Those skilled in the art will be familiar with the process of‘browsing’ the World Wide Web (or in short the Web) running on top ofthe Internet. This process comprises navigating from one display ofinformation, or ‘web page’ to another, each web page comprising arendering of data usually stored in a remote location. Generally, theuser moves between web pages using hyperlinks. The described embodimentis particularly concerned with browsing, where the web page, or otherdata, or a version web page and/or other data is rendered on a pluralityof different data-receiving applications. The plurality ofdata-receiving applications and/or data-receiving devices may be thoughtof as an aggregation. The term data-receiving device and data receivingapplication is not intended to be limited to devices that can onlyreceive data and such devices will often be able to transmit data aswell as receive. The term is intended to cover applications/devices thatcan only receive data (i.e. have data pushed to them), andapplications/devices that can both send and receive data.

[0037] The, or each, data-receiving application may be arranged to runon a different data-receiving device, or indeed a plurality ofdata-receiving applications may be arranged to run on the same device.For example, a data-receiving device, such as a PC, may be arranged torun an Internet browser, together with an application streaming video.The browser and the streaming application each constitute adata-receiving application, but running on the same data-receivingdevice.

[0038] If the user of one data-receiving application clicks or otherwiseselects a hyperlink, the displays of other data-receiving applicationsmay be arranged to change to indicate information displayed at this newlocation. As an example, a user may be using the Web with a first and asecond device, each running a single data-receiving application, butlinked in a single session. The first device may be a PC and the seconddevice may be a PDA. The PDA may be being used as a “remote control” tocontrol the data that is displayed on the PC such that when a link isactivated on the PDA the display of the PC is caused to change todisplay the new information and also the display of the PDA is changedto offer the user with some new selections.

[0039] One of the requirements of rendering data across a plurality ofdata-receiving applications is that navigation synchronisation takesplace i.e. that navigation operations on one data-receiving applicationare reflected on all other data-receiving applications in theaggregation.

[0040] A further example of which the teaching of this embodiment may beuseful is when several users are viewing individual devices. The devicemay be similar or they may be different. For example, consider alecturer where the students have individual display devices and thelecturer controls the display on each (this may in particular apply to‘correspondence’ courses, where the students may not be in the sameplace as the lecturer).

[0041] As is shown in FIG. 1, the storage-means, or server 100,comprises a display 104, processing circuitry 106, a keyboard 108, andmouse 110. The processing circuitry 106 further comprises a processingunit 112, a hard drive 114, a video driver 116, memory 118 (RAM and ROM)and an I/O subsystem 120 which all communicate with one another, as isknown in the art, via a system bus 122. The processing unit 112comprises at least one and generally a plurality of processors whichinclude those such as the INTEL™ PENTIUM™ series processors, running attypically between 2 GHz and 2.8 GHz.

[0042] As is known in the art the ROM portion of the memory 118 containsthe Basic Input Output System (BIOS) that controls basic hardwarefunctionality. The RAM portion of memory 118 is a volatile memory usedto hold instructions that are being executed, such as program code, etc.The hard drive 114 is used as mass storage for programs and other data.

[0043] Other devices such as CDROMS, DVD ROMS, network cards, etc. couldbe coupled to the system bus 122 and allow for storage of data,communication with other computers over a network, etc.

[0044] The server 100 could have the architecture known as a PC,originally based on the IBM™ specification, but could equally have otherarchitectures. The server may be an APPLE™, or may be a reducedinstruction set computer (RISC) system, and may run a variety ofoperating systems (perhaps HP-UX, LINUX, UNIX, MICROSOFT™ NT, AIX™, orthe like).

[0045] In prior art systems, when the server 100 receives a request fordata from a data-receiving device it will forward the requested data tothe appropriate data-receiving device. This is schematically representedin FIG. 2, which shows a connection to a voice portal 23, a WAP enabledtelephone 24, a landscape oriented PDA 26 and a PC 28 in communicationwith the server via a network connection 30. This list of devices thatcan request data from the server as mentioned herein is not exhaustiveand provides a first, second, third and fourth data-receiving device.Some examples of other devices may be screen projectors, finger printscanners, Internet televisions, digital cameras, etc.

[0046] It will be appreciated that each of the data-receiving devices23, 24, 26, 28 shown in FIG. 2 has different capabilities. The voiceportal 23 is only able to provide and receive data to a user thereof inaudio format. In this example, the portal 23 is provided with softwarecapable of receiving and interpreting VoiceXML which enables voiceaccess, control and inputs to a website. The PC 28 is not so limited,having the highest display capabilities of the devices listed. As eachof the data receiving-devices has a different practical use, the way inwhich a web-site is rendered or otherwise reproduced may advantageouslybe tailored for each device.

[0047] This is advantageous for two reasons.

[0048] Firstly, a document arranged for display on one of the deviceswill not necessarily be reproduced correctly on the other devices.Secondly, it may not be appropriate to display specific data on certaindevices. To give an example of this second point, a person giving alecture may wish to see the answers of questions that they are posing tothe students to whom they are lecturing. It would of course not beappropriate for the students to see the answers as well as thequestions.

[0049] Alternatively, or additionally, it may be that some data from aweb-site may usefully be ‘portable’ for a user-consider for example asales person, for whom it would be advantageous to carry sales prices,which may be up-dated from time to time. The sales person may not need,for example, a picture from the web-site, indeed, most portable deviceshave restricted memory capabilities, when compared to data-receivingdevices such as the PC 28, and it is desirable to carry only the minimumdata required on a device such as the PDA 26.

[0050] An example of a voice portal 23 is that provided by TellmeNetworks Incorporated. In practise, such a portal is likely to beaccessed using a telephone or a mobile telephone 25.

[0051] An example of a WAP enabled telephone 24 is the NOKIA™ 7110 thathas a black and white display of 96×65 pixels, but only 96×44 pixels areavailable for body data providing four lines of text at roughly 15characters per line. The telephone is provided with a keypad throughwhich data can be input thereto. A WAP enabled telephone 24 hasrestricted capabilities for storing and for processing data.

[0052] In this example the PDA 26 is a Compaq™ iPAQ™ that operates usingthe Microsoft™ PocketPC™ operating system, and runs Microsoft™ PocketExplorer as its means of communicating with the server 100. The iPAQ™has a virtual keyboard, as well as a touch screen input, and can accessthe web, etc. using modem, or network cards connected through its PCcard slot or via its infrared link, or Bluetooth™ link. The screen ofthe iPAQ™ can display colour (64 k colour) and has a resolution of320×240 pixels (i.e. landscape). (It is also possible for the PDA tohave a portrait perspective screen).

[0053] The PC 28 may have an architecture similar to that shown inFIG. 1. Its display is likely to be able to display 24-bit true colour(in excess of 16 million colours) at a resolution of at least 1024×768.Typically, a PC has superior storage and processing capabilities whencompared to a PDA.

[0054] The person skilled in the art will appreciate that a request fordata may cause a ‘state change’ on the server 100. For example therequest for data may place an order, modify account details, or thelike. Therefore, not only is the requested data supplied, but also someprocessing may be performed-for example updating account details. Inother words, the server 100 itself is affected by a request for data.Therefore, it is desirable not to send multiple versions of the sameand/or related request from different data-receiving applications,within the same aggregation of data-receiving applications, because theserver may (due to a state change that has occurred) not respond to therequests in the same way, or multiple occurrences of the requestedaction may occur. It will of course be appreciated that servers 100routinely handle multiple requests from data-receiving applicationswhich are not in the same aggregation (e.g. requests received at aserver for the same web page). Causing the server 100 to receivemultiple requests is also likely to increase the processing burden ofthe server 100.

[0055] As shown schematically in FIG. 3, there is provided adata-processing means, in this case a proxy server 300, which may havean architecture similar to the server 100 in FIG. 1. Although describedas a separate server 300 in this embodiment, the skilled person willappreciate the proxy server 300 may be provided by a data-receivingapplication running on a data-receiving device 23,24,26,28, or may be bya data-receiving application running on the server 100 as will bedescribed hereinafter. Either embodiment of providing a proxy server 300or a data-receiving application provide a data-processing means, whichadvantageously is a stateless data-processing means, to facilitatesynchronised navigation of a plurality of data-receiving applications.

[0056] The data-processing means 300 receives requests from one or moreof the requesting data-receiving devices, consolidates these (if thereare more than one) and forwards the consolidated request to the server100. The server responds by providing the information requested in theform required by each device to the data-processing means 300, and thisis then distributed to the data-receiving devices.

[0057] In the described embodiment communication between thedata-processing means and the data-receiving application is made usinghttp (Hyper Text Transfer Protocol) http is advantageous because httprequests are well known and readily available to current devices. Theskilled person will appreciate the http covers several different versionincluding http 1.0, http 1.1, and that there are variants such as https.It is intended that the term http covers all of these versions andvariants. Further, the list given herein is not intended to beexhaustive.

[0058] Further, the data-processing means is not required to maintainpersistent state for each aggregation of data-receiving applications.That is the data-processing means does not need to maintain a list ofdevices with which it is communicating. The requirement not to maintainpersistent state is advantageous because it makes the arrangement morescaleable. That is as the length of the list of devices grows (therecould conceivably be many thousands or millions of aggregations incommunication with a data-processing means) then the requirement forprocessing power and storage increase simply to hold the list ifpersistent state is required. If persistent state is not required thenrequirement then the burden upon storage and processing power is notlikely to be increased as much as the number of aggregations increases.

[0059] This is described in greater detail below and with reference toFIG. 4. A data-receiving application 800 initiating the navigationoperation issues an http request 802 to a target resource 808 and alsostimulates all other data-receiving applications to issue copycatrequests 806 to the same target resource 808. The copycat requests maycontain at least part of the initial request and may be substantially acopy of the initial request. The initial 802 and copycat 806 requestsform a request group. (Only two data-receiving applications are shown inthe aggregation of FIG. 4, but there could be any number). In thisembodiment to allow the copycat requests 806 to be stimulated one ormore inter data-receiving application messages 810 are required. Theinter data-receiving application messages 810 are provided by anysuitable mechanism. Mechanisms that may be particularly suitable includeSession Initiation Protocol (SIP), http, Short Message Service (SMS),Multi-media Message Service (MMS), or any other suitable mechanism. Thislist is not intended to be exhaustive and is simply intended to give theskilled person an impression of the technologies conceived at thisstage.

[0060] Both the initial 802 and copycat requests 806 are sent to thedata-processing means 300. Without a data-processing means 300, theinitial 802 and copycat requests 806 would all propagate to the targetresource 808, which may create two problems:

[0061] 1. The load at the resource server increases by a factor of N foran aggregation of N data-receiving applications.

[0062] 2. The resource may receive multiple non-idempotent requests, andfor correct operation would need to resolve these (somehow) to a singleoperation e.g. multiple copycat POST requests should only cause one bookto be ordered from an e-commerce application (POST is a mechanism forplacing form data into the body of a message)

[0063] The skilled person will appreciate the meaning of the terms“idempotent” and “non-idempotent” but for completeness they are asfollows: an idempotent request made to a server has the same effectwhether it is made once or repeated, whereas a non-idempotent requestmay have a new effect if repeated. As an example, an instance of anorder to an online store should be idempotent. It would be desirable toblock multiple orders placed accidentally and so the first requestshould be accepted and it is desirable that subsequent repeat requestshave no further effect.

[0064] Both of these problems may be addressed by routing the httprequests via a data-processing means 300 which consolidatesdata-receiving application requests.

[0065] Web-cache intermediaries are already widely used to preventmultiple requests for the same resource propagating to the resourceserver 100,808. Once one data-receiving application request has promptedthe resource to return a cacheable entity, a caching proxy is able tointercept and respond to subsequent requests from any data-receivingapplication for the same entity. A caching proxy may similarly be usedas a data-processing means to intercept copycat requests 806.

[0066] However, conventional web caching is only successful whensubsequent data-receiving application requests occur after a response tothe initial 802 request has been returned. This is likely when requestsoriginate from data-receiving applications operating somewhatindependently, but unlikely when copycat requests 806 originate from anaggregation of data-receiving applications. The copycat requests 806 arelikely to reach the caching proxy before a response to the initialrequest 802 has been received, resulting in a cache miss.

[0067] Therefore in a first embodiment for an aggregation ofdata-receiving applications copycat requests 806 may be stimulated onlyafter the response to the initial request 802 has been received at thedata-receiving application 800 initiating the initial request 802. Thisshould guarantee that the response is in the cache before the copycatrequests 806 reach the caching proxy, or data-processing means 300.

[0068] In a second embodiment for an aggregation of data-receivingdevices copycat requests 806 are stalled at the caching proxy, ordata-processing means 300 i.e. the data-processing means only forwardsthe initial request 802 and waits until it has cached the response tothat request before servicing the copycat requests 806. This should alsoresult in a cached response being available for the copycat requests806. This process provides a request consolidation, which advantageouslyresolves all requests belonging to the same request group, and stallsall but the initial request 802. Stalling may be thought of as neithertransmitting to said data-storage means nor responding to saiddata-request.

[0069] The second embodiment described may be advantageous for thefollowing reasons: waiting for the first response before stimulatingcopycat requests 806, as in the first embodiment, introduces latency. Itcannot be assumed that all data-receiving applications are ‘close’ tothe data-processing means (i.e. low latency between data-receivingapplication and data-processing means, in this case a proxy server) andtherefore, significant delays may be introduced.

[0070] Secondly, it may be advantageous to enable request bodyconsolidation at the data-processing means 300 e.g. to merge the messagebodies of POST's from multiple data-receiving applications. This wouldrequire that all requests (initial 802 and copycat 806) within a requestgroup to be received at the data-processing means 300 before thedata-processing means 300 forwards a request to the resource server 808.

[0071] The skilled person will of course appreciate that not allresponses are cacheable. In particular, responses to POST requests andGET requests with query parameters (‘?’ parameters appended to the URI)are typically not cached. This is because the response to these requestsis assumed to be ‘dynamic’ and dependent upon the content of the POSTmessage body or GET parameters. However, it is particularly advantageousthat multiple copies of these, potentially non-idempotent, do not reachthe resource server 808.

[0072] Generally it would not be appropriate to return the cachedresponse to one data-receiving application's POST in response to anotherdata-receiving application. However, in the case of a copycat request806, regardless of the request method, a copy of the resource server's808 response to the lead initial request 800 is always cached andreturned in response to copycat requests 806 which have been initiatedby an inter data-receiving application message 810 following an initialrequest 802 (i.e. are in the same request group). This may help toensure that only one request of any request group is propagated to theresource server 808.

[0073] It will be appreciated that, due to latencies in the system, thedata-processing means 300 may receive a copycat request 806 before itreceives the initial request 800. However, for the sake of clarity thenotation is maintained.

[0074] In the embodiment being described some cache entries (e.g. thosefor POST responses) are indexed against a request group identity, whichis preferably unique to that request group. Such entries may be expiredfrom the cache as soon as all requests in the request group have beenserviced.

[0075] Further, the data-processing means 300 may merge the contents ofthe initial 302 and copycat 806 requests. This may be advantageous insituations in which the resource server 808 distributes a form, or othersuch data, across multiple variants, such that one data-receivingapplication presents an interface to one fragment of the form datawhilst another data-receiving application presents an interface toanother fragment. In such arrangements it is convenient that when theform is submitted, the various fragments are amalgamated into a singlemessage body that is sent to the resource server 100 in a singlerequest.

[0076] Some embodiments may not involve the data-processing means 300 inthis consolidation process. Because the data-receiving applications areable to communicate directly with each other, it would be possible forthe data-receiving applications to update each other with changes totheir respective form data fragments. Therefore, at any point in timeany data-receiving application may be able to construct a fullrepresentation of the form data and submit it to the resource (via a GETor POST request).

[0077] In an alternative embodiment each of the data-receivingapplications submit their data fragments to the data-processing means300 in the body of their individual request and the data-processingmeans 300 merges the data before forwarding a single request to theresource server 100. This is as shown in FIG. 4, where it can be seenthat the initial request contains data A, the copycat 806 requestcontains data B and a single request 812 sent to the resource server 808contains data A+B. To achieve this, the data-processing means 300 waitsto receive all requests within the same request group before forwardinga request to the resource server 808. In addition to the request groupidentity, the data-receiving applications therefore communicate to thedata-processing means the number of data-receiving applications in theaggregation.

[0078] The second embodiment in which the data-processing means 300consolidates the data is advantageous because some data might be largemaking it undesirable to continuously update all data-receivingapplications with changes when some data-receiving applications may notpresent an interface to those components of the form. Secondly, somedata might be sensitive (private), making it undesirable to share acrossall data-receiving applications. The skilled person will appreciate thatthe user may not own each of the data-receiving applications and/ordata-receiving devices running the data-receiving applications withinthe aggregation and that therefore, privacy may be of high importance.

[0079] The data-processing means 300 may be arranged to resolve, or atleast attempt to resolve, all data conflicts that occur in data-requestsmade to the data-processing means from data-receiving applications suchthat the request sent to the resource server 808 does not have anyconflicts therein. The data-processing means 300 may thus, try to ensurethat data passed to it in the data-requests is mutually consistent ormutually exclusive.

[0080] The data-processing means may not store the number ofdata-receiving applications in the aggregation between requests. It isadvantageous for the data-processing means 300 to have this number as itallows the data-processing means 300 to determine when all requests in arequest group have been serviced, and remove associated cache entries.The number of data-receiving applications in an aggregation may bedynamic and change between requests.

[0081] In a further alternative, or additional embodiment, one of thedata-receiving applications may act as a “master” data-receivingapplication. This is useful for the purposes of submitting form data, orin embodiments in which the capabilities of the data-receivingapplications/devices are passed to the data-processing means as will bedescribed hereinafter.

[0082] In the case of form data the master data-receiving applicationwould maintain a complete copy of the form data which would be updatedthrough inter data-receiving application messages 810. Otherdata-receiving applications might only maintain a fragment of the formdata. In this embodiment whenever a “submit” is triggered by userinteraction, which causes the form data to be sent to thedata-processing means, the submit task is delegated to the “master”data-receiving application. The master data-receiving applicationgenerates the initial request 802 complete with form data, which thedata-processing means 300 forwards to the resource server 808. All otherdata-receiving applications generate copycat requests 806 that do notneed to carry any form data. Such an arrangement is shown in FIG. 5.

[0083] In such embodiments the data-processing means 300 is capable ofdistinguishing between the initial 802 request and the copycat 806requests. In general all the embodiments described are facilitated byhaving the data-receiving application 800 communicate the status oftheir request to the data-processing means 300. That status may be oneof: 1. Complete data for the form (and/or application/devicecapabilities) 2. Partial data for the form (and/or application/devicecapabilities).

[0084] On receiving a complete data request, the data-processing means300 forwards it to the resource server 808 and stalls (does not pass onnor respond to) all subsequent, copycat 806, requests in that requestgroup. Alternatively, on receiving a partial data request (whetherinitial 802, or copycat 806), the data-processing means 300 stalls therequest 802,806 until it receives all requests 802,806 in that requestgroup (at which point it merges partial data fragments (i.e. portionsfrom each partial data-request) into a single request 812) or until itreceives a complete data request in the same request group (which itforwards).

[0085] In order to allow the data-processing means 300 to determinewhether a request 802,806 originates from the same group of requests(i.e. has been triggered by an inter data-receiving application message810 following an initial request 802) it is convenient to generate aunique (at least to the data-processing means 300) request groupidentity for each request group.

[0086] In some embodiments the request group identity is generated bythe data-receiving applications, for example it could be a concatenationof the user's email address and a unique string(fred_bloggs@hp.com/abcdefg). Alternatively, or additionally, in asecond embodiment the request group identity could be generated by thedata-processing means 300. Each data-receiving application may receive anew request group identity in a header of the response to the currentrequest, and uses the new identity for the next request. In such asecond embodiment it may be convenient for an initial (non-group)request to the data-processing means 300 to bootstrap the process.

[0087] It would generally also be necessary to communicate the requestgroup identity from data-receiving applications to the data-processingmeans. In a first example this may be achieved via use of a header tothe request. This may be via the http “From” header.

[0088] In an alternative, or additional, second embodiment the requestgroup identity could be passed via the request URL. The data-receivingapplication could append the request group identity as a parameter tothe URL (e.g. http://www.foobar.com/index.html?ReqID=abcdefg). Thisrequest group identity may subsequently be stripped off by thedata-processing means 300. This is second embodiment is advantageousbecause it is transparent to the http stack, but has the problem thatthe chosen parameter may clash with a parameter name that is alreadyincluded in the URL (e.g. a form variable that has name=ReqID).

[0089] In addition to the request group identity (which generallyindicates that the data-requests within the group belong to the samerequest—for example request number 3 by aggregation x), it is alsopossible for the data-receiving application and/or data-receiving deviceto add an application/device identity to a data-request, whichidentifies the data-receiving application/request that made that datarequest. It is envisaged that the request group identity is in additionto the URL (or other indication of the source of the data) requested inthe data-request which will generally be common to all data-requestswithin a data-request group.

[0090] The data-processing means 300 is used to consolidatedata-receiving application requests 802,806 into a single request 812 tothe resource server 808. This consolidation is desirable as it ensuresthat any side effects that the request might have on the resource (e.g.committing an e-commerce transaction, posting a message to a bulletinboard) only occur once. The consolidation also results in a singleresponse being returned by the resource server 808, which usuallycontains a ‘representation’ of the resource's state.

[0091] As discussed above, the aggregation of data-receivingapplications may be run on a plurality of different data-receivingdevices 23,24,26,28 each having different capabilities. Therefore, thesystem may need multiple representations of the data to be returned fromthe resource server 808. Generally, each representation of the data isadapted for a specific set of application/device capabilities (e.g.screen size, audio etc). The capabilities may be passed to thedata-processing means and processed in a similar manner to how form datais processed. Each data-receiving device/application will have a profileof capabilities and the aggregation of data-receivingapplications/devices will have a profile.

[0092] The aggregation profile may be constructed at the data-processingmeans 300 in a similar fashion to the processes described above whichdescribe how the consolidated request may be made to the resource server808 in relation to form data i.e. wait for all requests with the samerequest group identity and include all profiles in the consolidated, orsingle, request 812 to the resource server 808.

[0093] However, for the avoidance of doubt one data-receivingapplication may act as master and hold a complete list of data-receivingapplication/device profiles for the devices/applications within theaggregation. Alternatively, each data-receiving application may send aportion of the aggregate profile, generally the profile for itself/thedevice on which it is running, in requests made to the data-processingmeans. The data-processing means 300 stalls making a request to theresource server 808 until a complete list is available (whether byreceipt of a complete list from the master data-receiving application,or whether by the building of a complete list from receipts of partiallists).

[0094] Secondly, data will generally be adapted according to thecollective capabilities of the aggregation of data-receiving devicese.g. the data for a VoiceXML browser is dependent upon the presence ofanother data-receiving application that is capable of rendering HTML.For example, with only a VoiceXML data-receiving application available,the content for that data-receiving application may be: <VXML>   <form>    <field name=“pizza”>       <prompt>Please say the type of pizza youwould like. You can choose from       Pepperoni, Hawaiian, Four Cheese,..       </prompt>     </field>   </form> </VXML>

[0095] whereas if an HTML data-receiving application is also availablethe content may be: <VXML>   <form>     <field name=“pizza”>      <prompt>Please say the type of pizza you would like. You canchoose from the       list on the screen.       </prompt>     </field>  </form> </VXML>

[0096] and the corresponding HTML may be: <html>   <body>     <form>      <input type=“radio” name=“pizza”value=“Pepperoni”>Pepperoni</input>       <input type=“radio”name=“pizza” value=“Hawaiian”>Hawaiian</input>       <input type=“radio”name=“pizza” value=“FourCheese”>Four Cheese</input>     </form>  </body> </html>

[0097] VoiceXML is a subset of XML and follows the principles of XML.

[0098] VoiceXML is designed for creating audio dialogs that featuresynthesized speech, digitized audio, recognition of spoken and DTMF keyinput, recording of spoken input, telephony, and mixed-initiativeconversations.

[0099] Although the skilled person will be fully conversant withVoiceXML a full description can be found athttp://www.w3.org/TR/voicexm120/.

[0100] XML requires pairs of tags, or identifiers, to be placed within adocument. Theses tags do not specify how the information should bepresented, but specify the content of the information between the pairsof tags. The skilled person will fully understand XML, but a fulldescription can be found at http://www.w3.org, and the brief descriptionbelow will aid his/her understanding. An archive of this site may befound at http://web.archive.org/web/*/http://www.w3.org which alsocontains information about XML.

[0101] The skilled person will appreciate how data written as an XMLdocument is structured: written in words, or data sub-items, which arecollected into data sub-item groups. The data sub-item groups cancomprise sentences, paragraphs, or simply collections of words. The datasub-item groups, or even just data sub-items, are placed between pairsof tags, or identifiers.

[0102] The tags, or identifiers, appear as follows: <variable>, and</variable>, with variable being any word, or character stringacceptable according to the XML recommendation. Further, each data subitem group can be itself broken down into a number of sub-items. Thisstructure is convenient and allows for easy manipulation and searchingof the complete data item. Each data sub-item group may of course beconsidered as a portion of the data.

[0103] HTML and XHTML are subsets of XML and the above discussion of XMLis applicable.

[0104] It may be advantageous to adapt the data received by thedata-processing means 300 from the resource server 808 according to thenumber of data-receiving applications in the aggregation. This may bethe case even if the data-receiving applications have identical, orsubstantially identical, capabilities e.g. additional data may beincluded to assist in synchronisation of multiple data-receivingapplications.

[0105] For example if the aggregation has only one data-receivingapplication which is capable of rendering HTML, the content for thatdata-receiving application might be: <ev:listener ev:target=“foo”ev:event=“click” ev:handler=“#clickHandler”/> <input id=“foo”/> <scriptid=“clickHandler”>  <!-- execute some event handling functions --></script>

[0106] The skilled person will appreciate that this XML is composed ofelements from the HTML and XML Events XML vocabularies which instruct adata-receiving application to render a textbox input form control and tocapture mouse ‘click’ events that occur on that textbox. The events arerouted to an event handler declared within the <script> element

[0107] If two HTML data-receiving applications are available, thecontent for each of them might be: <ev:listener ev:target=“foo”ev:event=“click” ev:handler=“#clickHandler”/> <input id=“foo”/> <scriptid=“clickHandler”>  <fork to=“anotherBrowser”ev:handler=“#anotherClickHandler”/>  <!-- execute some event handlingfunctions --> </script>

[0108] As the skilled person will appreciate, when two or moredata-receiving applications are present, the data includes additionalXML (illustrated here by a possible new element called <fork>, but thisis just an example) which instructs the data-receiving application todistribute the click event to another event handler that is contained indata that has been transmitted to another data-receiving application.This enables events to be distributed among several data-receivingapplications. Generally, in order for data to be adapted for anyonedata-receiving application it is convenient if the adaptation functionis aware of the capabilities of all data-receiving applications in theaggregation.

[0109] Furthermore, it is convenient if the adaptation function is awareof the distribution of capabilities across the data-receivingapplications and/or data-receiving devices. Generally it will not besufficient to know that the aggregation of data-receiving applicationsis capable of rendering HTML and VoiceXML and it will generally benecessary to know whether one data-receiving application is capable ofrendering HTML while another is capable of rendering VoiceXML, orwhether both data-receiving applications can render both HTML andVoiceXML. It will of course be appreciated that VoiceXML and HTML aremerely examples of mark-up languages that may be used and any othermark-up language is equally possible.

[0110] Therefore, the data-receiving devices and/or applications withinan aggregation will have a so called aggregation profile which can beused specify the composite make-up of the aggregation and the profilesof data-receiving devices within the aggregation.

[0111] In some existing web applications the adaptation function isperformed at the client (the data-receiving application). In anembodiment realising this invention, to achieve such client sideadaptation, the server 808 returns a generic response that contains anabstract description of the data (e.g. XML). This would typicallyinclude an inline reference to a stylesheet (XSLT or CSS) that the datareceiving application 800 applies to transform the abstract data to datareceiving application-specific variant.

[0112] In many existing web applications content is adapted at theserver before being returned in the http response. In an aggregation ofdata-receiving devices, in which a single request 812 is generated asdescribed herein, then the semantics of the single request 812 should beextended from “return a representation of the requested data, oftenreferred to as a resource, (suitable for this data-receiving applicationprofile) to “return representation(s) of the requested data (resource)suitable for a list of data-receiving devices/applications”. In oneembodiment the single request 812 carries multiple data-receivingapplication profiles (which may mean including the aggregation profile)and the corresponding response 900 return multiple variants of the datawhich are appropriate for the given data-receiving devices/applications.

[0113] Therefore, the aggregation profile will generally capture boththe composition of the aggregation and the capabilities of eachdata-receiving application and/or device within it. In one embodimentthe aggregation profile is described through the use of multiple httpheaders that may be constructed by the data-processing means 300 andincluded in the single request 812.

[0114] For example, consider the case when the data-processing means 300receives three requests, each including http headers describing thecapabilities of the originating data-receiving device and/orapplication.

[0115] First request:

[0116] Data-receiving application-ID: client 1

[0117] Profile: “www.example.com/profile1”

[0118] Second request:

[0119] Data-receiving application-ID: client 2

[0120] Profile: “www.example.com/profile2”

[0121] “www.example.com/profile3”

[0122] Third request:

[0123] Data-receiving application-ID: client 3

[0124] Profile: “www.example.com/profile2”

[0125] “www.example.com/profile3”

[0126] From these sets of headers the data-processing means 300constructs the aggregation profile http header set:

[0127] Profile-Agg: client1;xx, client2;yy, client3; yy

[0128] Profile:xx “www.example.com/profile1”

[0129] Profile:yy “www.example.com/profile2”

[0130] “www.example.com/profile3”

[0131] A person skilled in the art will appreciate that the Profileheaders are used to indicate web resources which describe the capabilitysets, and that these Profiles have been bound to the respectivedata-receiving application ID in the Profile-Agg header of the singlerequest 812.

[0132] The aggregation profile may be constructed at the data-processingmeans 300 in a similar fashion to the processes described above whichdescribe how the single request 812 may be made to the resource server808 i.e. wait for all requests with the same request group identity andinclude all profiles in the single request 812 to the resource server808. Alternatively, the aggregation profile could be included by eachdata-receiving application in its individual request, assuming thatdata-receiving applications have a means to discover each other'sprofiles.

[0133] The existing http multipart response mechanism may be extended totransport multiple response variants by using headers to associate eachentity part with a data-receiving application. For example: Content-Type= multipart/mixed; boundary=----foobar ----foobar ForClient: client1 ..[content] .. ----foobar ForClient: client2,client3 [content] ..

[0134] Instead of treating the multiple entity parts as replacements(which is conventional browser behaviour when receiving multipartentities), the data-processing means 300 would use the ForClient:headers to demultiplex the entity parts within the response 900 from theresource server 808 and include the appropriate part in single-part(initial 902 and copycat 904) responses to individual data-receivingapplications 800, which can be more clearly seen in FIG. 6.

[0135] In some embodiments a charge may be made for transmitting data toa data-handling device. Payment may be required before data is deliveredto the data-handling device. Payment mechanisms will be familiar to theperson skilled in the art but may include any of the following: debitinga user account; credit card payments; reversed charged text messages;micro-payment mechanism, etc.

What we claim is:
 1. A computing device which comprises a receiver andtransmitter, the receiver being arranged to receive a plurality of datarequests from a plurality of data-receiving applications, said pluralityof data requests forming a request group, and also to receive data froma store, and the transmitter being arranged to transmit data to saidstore and to transmit received-data received from said store to saiddata-receiving applications, further, said computing device beingarranged to process requests for data received by said receiver fromsaid data-receiving applications, identify said received data requestsas belonging to the group, evaluate said requests and to produce asingle request for the data-requests within said request group andgenerated by said evaluation and to cause said transmitter to transmitsaid single request to said data-store and further to receive data fromsaid data-store, process said received-data and to transmit saidreceived data, or portions thereof, to at least one of saiddata-receiving applications.
 2. A computing device according to claim 1which is arranged such that said evaluation comprises postponing sendingsaid single request until all requests within a request group have beenreceived.
 3. A computing device according to claim 1 which is arrangedsuch that said evaluation comprises sending said single request onreceipt of the first request within a request group.
 4. A computingdevice according to claim 1 which is arranged such that said evaluationcomprises monitoring requests within a request group and transmittingsaid single request when the computing device has received sufficientdata to create said single request from data-requests made thereto.
 5. Acomputing device according to claim 1 which is arranged such that saidevaluation comprises merging data-requests received from saiddata-receiving applications such that said single request comprises aconsolidated request comprising at least portions of said data-requests.6. A computing device according to claim 5 in which the data-requestscomprise data providing a portion of a form.
 7. A computing deviceaccording to claim 5 in which the single data-request comprises dataproviding all of, or substantially all of, a form.
 8. A computing deviceaccording to claim 1 which is a proxy server and/or an applicationrunning on a data-receiving device and/or a store such as a server.
 9. Acomputing device according to claim 1 which is arranged such that saididentification of the received data-requests as belonging to a group isachieved by reading a portion of the data-request that provides a groupidentity.
 10. A computing device according to claim 1 which is arrangedto use the Hyper Text Transfer Protocol (http) for any of the following:receive data-requests; transmit said single request; receive data fromsaid store; transmit data to said data-receiving applications.
 11. Amethod of requesting data comprising receiving a plurality of datarequests from a plurality of data-receiving applications, said pluralityof data-requests forming a request group, evaluating said requests,identifying said received data requests as belonging to the group andproducing a single request for data, to a store, for said request groupgenerated by said evaluation, receiving received-data in response tosaid single request from said store, processing said received-data andsending said received-data, or portions thereof, to at least one of saiddata-receiving applications.
 12. A method according to claim 11 in whichsaid evaluation comprises one of the following: i. stalling said singlerequest until all requests within a request group have been received;ii. sending said single request on receipt of the first request within arequest group; iii. merging data-requests received from saiddata-receiving applications such that said single request comprises aconsolidated request; and iv. monitoring requests within a request groupand transmitting said single request when the processor has receivedsufficient data from said data-requests to create said single request.13. A system comprising at least two data-receiving applications runningon one or more data-receiving devices, each data-receiving applicationbeing capable of requesting and receiving data, a data-processor and adata store connected to said data-receiving applications via saiddata-processor, said data-processor being arranged to receive aplurality of data-requests forming a request group from saiddata-receiving applications, to identify said received data requests asbelonging to the group, to evaluate said data-requests and to send asingle request for the data-requests within said request group to saiddata store and further being arranged to receive data from said datastore, in response to said single request, process said received dataand distribute said received data, or portions thereof, to at least oneof said data-receiving applications.
 14. A system according to claim 13in which the data-receiving applications are arranged to communicatewith one another via inter data-receiving application messages.
 15. Asystem according to claim 13 in which a data-receiving application isarranged to generate and send a data-request to said data-processorfollowing receipt of an inter data-receiving application message.
 16. Asystem according to claim 13 in which said data-receiving applicationsare arranged to add a data-request group identity to said data requestand/or a data-receiving device/application identity before or duringtransmission of said data-request to said data-processor.
 17. A systemaccording to claim 13 in which said data-receiving applications arearranged to add to said data request one of the following: the number ofdata-requests that are to be made to said data-processor, in adata-request group; or a list of the data-receiving applications/devicesthat are to make a data-request to said data-processor.
 18. A systemaccording to claim 13 in which said data-processor is arranged toidentify the first data-request received thereby within a data-requestgroup.
 19. A system according to claim 18 in which said data-processoris arranged to transmit said single request once said first data-requestreceived has been identified.
 20. A system according to claim 18 inwhich said data-processor is arranged neither to transmit to said storenor respond to said data-requests which are within a data-request groupwhich are not the first data-request received thereby in thatdata-request group until data has been received from said store inresponse to said single request transmitted following said firstdata-request.
 21. A system according to claim 13, in which saiddata-processor is arranged neither to transmit to said data store norrespond to said data-requests within a data-request group until alldata-requests in that data-request group have been received thereby. 22.A system according to claim 13 in which said data-processor is arrangedto merge data-requests within a data-request group in to a consolidatedrequest, comprising at least portions of said data-requests, and to sendsaid consolidated request as said single request.
 23. A system accordingto claim 22 in which said data-processor is arranged to delay sendingsaid single request to said data store until said data-processor hasreceived sufficient data from said data-requests to create said singlerequest.
 24. A system according to claim 23 in which any one datarequest can comprise any of the following: a partial data-request inwhich a portion of the data required to generate said single request isprovided by that data-request; or a complete data-request in which allof the data required to generate said single request is provided by thatdata-request.
 25. A system according to claim 24 in which saiddata-processing applications are arranged to add data to saiddata-requests which identifies whether said data request is partialdata-request or a complete data-request.
 26. A system according to claim25 in which said data-receiving applications are arranged to add to saidsingle request the capabilities of said data-receiving applicationand/or data-receiving device on which said application is running for asingle application/device and/or for each application/device within adata-request group.
 27. A system according to claim 26 in which saiddata-processor processes said capabilities received in saiddata-requests and ensure that said single request includes thecapabilities for all data-receiving applications/devices within arequest group.
 28. A system according to claim 27 in which said datastore sends a plurality of versions of the data requested in the singlerequest according to the capabilities listed in the single request. 29.A system according to claim 13 in which the data-processor is any of thefollowing: a proxy server; an application running on a data-receivingdevice; and/or a store such as a server.
 30. A system according to claim13 which is arranged to use the Hyper Text Transfer Protocol (http) forany of the following: data-requests from the data-receiving applicationsto the data-processor; single request to said store from saiddata-processor; receiving data from said store; transmitting data tosaid data-receiving applications.
 31. A method of delivering andreceiving data to and from two or more data-receiving applicationsrunning on one or more data-receiving devices, said method comprisingreceiving a plurality of requests for data, the plurality of requestsforming a request group, from said data-receiving applications using adata-processor, evaluating said requests, determining a data-request asbelonging to the request group, sending a single request to a data storefrom the data-processor and further comprising processing data receivedfrom said data store in response to said single request using saiddata-processor, and distributing said received data, or portionsthereof, to at least one of said data-receiving applications.
 32. Adata-structure comprising a request for data, a data-request groupidentity indicating membership of a group of a plurality ofdata-receiving applications and/or data-receiving devices forming adata-request group.
 33. A data-structure according to claim 32 whichincludes any of the following: the number of data-requests that are tobe made to said data-processor in a data-request group; a list of thedata-receiving applications/devices that are to make a data-request tosaid data-processor.
 34. A data-structure according to claim 32 whichincludes the capabilities of said data-receiving application and/ordata-receiving device on which said application is running.
 35. Adata-structure according to claim 34 which includes the capabilities foreach data-receiving application/device within a data-request group. 36.A computer readable medium containing instructions, which when read ontoa computer cause that computer to perform the method of claim
 11. 37. Acomputer readable medium containing instructions, which when read onto acomputer cause that computer to perform the method of claim
 31. 38. Acomputer readable medium containing instructions, which when read onto acomputing device cause that computing device to function as thecomputing device of claim
 1. 39. A computer readable medium containinginstructions, which when read onto a processor cause that processor tofunction as the data-processor of claim
 13. 40. A computer readablemedium containing the data-structure of claim
 32. 41. A computing devicewhich comprises a receiver and transmitter, the receiver being arrangedto receive a plurality of data requests from a plurality ofdata-receiving applications, said plurality of requests forming arequest group, and also to receive data from a store, and thetransmitter being arranged to transmit data to said store and totransmit received-data received from said store to said data-receivingapplications, further, said processor being arranged to process requestsfor data received by said receiver from said data-receivingapplications, evaluate said requests, identify said received datarequests as belonging to the group and to produce a single request forthe data-requests within said request group and generated by saidevaluation and to cause said transmitter to transmit said single requestto said store and further to receive data from said store, process saidreceived-data and to transmit said received data, or portions thereof,to at least one of said data-receiving applications, wherein saidcomputing device is further arranged such that said evaluation comprisesone of: postponing sending said single request until all requests withina request group have been received; sending said single request onreceipt of the first request within a request group; monitoring requestswithin a request group and transmitting said single request when thecomputing device has received sufficient data to create said singlerequest from data-requests made thereto; and merging data-requestsreceived from said data-receiving applications such that said singlerequest comprises a consolidated request comprising at least portions ofsaid data-requests.
 42. A processing means which comprises a receiverand transmitting means, the receiver being arranged to receive aplurality of data requests from a plurality of data-receivingapplications, said plurality of data requests forming a request group,and also to receive data from a storage means, and the transmittingmeans being arranged to transmit data to said storage means and totransmit received-data received from said storage means to saiddata-receiving applications, further, said processing means beingarranged to process requests for data received by said receiver fromsaid data-receiving applications, identify said received data request asbelonging to the group, evaluate said requests and to produce a singlerequest for the data-requests within said request group and generated bysaid evaluation and to cause said transmitting means to transmit saidsingle request to said data-storage means and further to receive datafrom said data-storage means, process said received-data and to transmitsaid received data, or portions thereof, to at least one of saiddata-receiving applications.
 43. A system comprising at least twodata-receiving applications running on one or more data-receiving means,each data-receiving application being capable of requesting andreceiving data, a data-processing means and a data-storage meansconnected to said data-receiving applications via said data-processingmeans, said data-processing means being arranged to receive a pluralityof data-requests forming a request group from said data-receivingapplications to evaluate said data-requests, identify said received datarequests as belonging to the group and to send a single request for thedata-requests within said request group to said data-storage means andfurther being arranged to receive data from said data-storage means, inresponse to said single request, process said received data anddistribute said received data, or portions thereof, to at least one ofsaid data-receiving applications.
 44. A method of delivering andreceiving data to and from two or more data-receiving applicationsrunning on one or more data-receiving means, said method comprisingreceiving a plurality of requests for data, the plurality of requestforming a request group, from said data-receiving applications using adata-processing means, assessing said requests, identifying saidreceived data requests as belonging to the group, sending a singlerequest to a data-storage means from the data-processing means andfurther comprising processing data received from said data-storage meansin response to said single request using said data-processing means, anddistributing said received data, or portions thereof, to at least one ofsaid data-receiving applications.